Today I had a most unusual experience. I have never seen this before in 25 years of practice.
In court room 1804, Judge Stuart, while I was attending a hearing on the Sykes case, the bailiff walked up to me and took my laptop! She didn’t ask me to put it away. She just took it. I told her that the courts allow electronic note taking, but she took it anyway.
This is at a hearing where Adam Stern and Peter Schmeidel were going on and on about how I was disqualified from representing Gloria for notarizing one document and how I was running a blog about the Mary Sykes case (horrors)!
Some have speculated (this is only a rumor now) about how I might have been blogging about the case in the court room!
The court personnel (where were they during 6th grade US constitution exam) thought I couldn’t take notes because I was not a court reporter. Interesting, but no cigar. The reality is, I cannot take the place of a court reporter because they have specialized training and a license. But as a US citizen in an open court, I do have the constitutional right to take notes.
The big questions are tho: 1) why are Adam Stern and Peter Schmeidel and the court so overly concerned about my running a court room blog? 2) No one has asserted how anything posted on this blog is untrue (other than Cynthia Farenga, and adequate evidence was attached to a communication sent to her that completely dispels this notion) and 3) why is it no one in that count room seems to know that blogging, public dissemination of court room proceedings are a basic and important US constitutional right?
Open courts are inimical to a free and just society. It is of the most urgent importance that reporters, bloggers and anyone with a quest for truth and justice be allowed to enter into any US court room and take notes and publish them anywhere there is an audience interested in the proceedings and the free and open flow of information (or in this case, lack thereof).
We all have an interest in keeping our courtrooms open and free. By that we can ensure that justice is done there.
Sadly, today it was severely lacking. And even more sad was a courtroom filled with about a dozen people that didn’t seem to know or care about how important that right was.
I recall getting 100 on my 6th grade US and Illinois constitution exam. I guess it’s sad when you put the people that got all the low scores in charge of the courtroom!
PS–the files on my laptop go back to documents and emails prepared for clients back to 1990! I wonder how Judge Stuart is going to explain to clients why their information was placed into the hands of a court room bailiff who knows nothing of them or their business. She was a part of it. I will publish the transcript when I get it.
PPS–there are devices on the market that can scam a hard drive via an open port in minutes! Why did the judge allow a meagerly paid court room bailiff access to a lap top of an attorney that had years of confidential and highly sensitive client information which should have the eminence of attorney client privilege on it with very little apparent forethought and absolutely no safety precautions for the data contained therein?
All good questions.
Another day in probate. Another day with more questions than answers.
Cook County Courts are still on the record as criminal enterprise -- it's only gotten worse since Operation Greylord and the lawlessness is accomplished because of the serious political clout Judge Jane Louise Stuart has -- including but not limited to President Obama. She will stop at nothing to destroy me, to silence me, in order to protect herself. Even now the ATtorney General's office of Illinois is protecting her -- as opposed to protecting my mother as they should under law. Silencing me and rendering me penniless and homeless is just the beginning. Judge Jane Louise Stuart will do whatever she must to silence any person who even thinks about telling the truth. Welcome to Cook County Probate Courts where they 'murder' people's family ties, realities, futures, and take their homes and money to secure their own wealth and security in as a Judge....
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